Following the recent announcements in the spending review of cuts that will face DEFRA, WRAP have begun to find alternative funding streams to support their work. It emerged that this has borne fruit with the successful award of funding to undertake business resource efficiency work.

The EU grant will allow for WRAP to demonstrate and work alongside businesses to implement and deliver resource-efficient business models (REBM?s). This will be done working with 10 major organisations and 20 SME?s to run REBM pilots in both the UK and the Netherlands.

These business models will be concentrated on WRAPs work in four key markets ? construction materials and products, furniture, clothing, and electronic products.

The pilots will seek to achieve 15% resource savings (compared to a business-as-usual baseline level). The pilots will seek to achieve both a reduction in waste but also demonstrate how a resource efficient business model can generate growth.

The overall value of the project is over ?3m delivered over the next three and a half years, ?1.5m of the funding is provided by the EU LIFE+ fund - the European Commission's primary funding support for environmental innovation and demonstration projects.